'Undermining flag': Khaleda to face arrest if fails to appear Oct 5

An arrest warrant will be issued on October 5 if BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia fails to appear before it on that day in a case filed over undermining Bangladesh's map and the national flag.

Metropolitan Magistrate Nur Nabi passed the order today after AB Siddique, president of Jananetri Parishad, a pro-Awami League organisation, submitted a petition seeking an arrest warrant for Khaleda for her failure to comply with its order.

Earlier on March 22, the same court had issued a summons against Khaleda asking her to appear before it on September 12. But the BNP chairperson didn't comply.

Siddique on November 3 last year had filed the case with the court accusing Khaleda and her late husband former president Ziaur Rahman of undermining Bangladesh's map and the national flag.

After holding a hearing, the court directed the officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station to investigate the matter.

OC (investigation) Moshiur Rahman of the police station found the allegations to be true. He, however, dropped Zia's name from the case as he was dead.

Moshiur submitted the probe report to the court on February 25.

Taking to The Daily Star on September 15, Sanaullah Mia, one of the lawyers of Khaleda, said they could not represent the former prime minister, now in London, in the court as they had no Vaklatnama from her.

A Vakalatnama is a document in writing, appointing a lawyer to represent the client's matter in a court.

As alleged in the complaint, Zia had taken over as the country's president after the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members on August 15, 1975. He also threatened Hasina and confined her after she had arrived in the country from abroad on May 17, 1981.

Khaleda had formed a coalition government with Jamaat-e-Islami in 2001. She appointed ministers from the party and handed over the map and the national flag of independent Bangladesh to them even though they fought against the country during the Liberation War, the complaint reads.

The move was tantamount to undermining Bangladesh's map and the national flag, the complainant alleged.